There are street carts (‘gaadis’) all over New York City serving this, a bit like chaat in Mumbai. We tasted these in one of those and we really loved it. A very popular snack from the Middle-east/Mediterranean made of chickpea, fava beans or both. Served as deep fried balls (think Vadas) served generally with Sesame seed sauce (Tahini) and some spicy sauce. We love this stuff. Prepared these a few months ago in New York, but only putting up now. Here it is:

What you need to have:

1. Dry Chickpea/Garbanzo beans/Kabuli chana – 1 cup

2. Chopped onion – 1 cup

3. Garlic pods – 2-3

4. Cayane pepper -1-2

5. Coriander seeds – 1 teaspoon

6. Cumin seeds – 1 tablespoon

7. Chopped Parsley – 3 tablespoons

8. Salt – to taste

9. Oil to fry – 2 cups

Ingredients to mix:

1. maida – 3/4 tablespoon

2. Black pepper powder – 1/4 teaspoon

3. Cardamom powder – 1/4 teaspoon

Soaked chickpeas/Garbanzo beans

Other ingredients to grind & mix

What you do with what you have:

1. Soak Chick peas over night in water and is as shown image-1.

2. Grind it along with coriander seeds, cumin seeds, chopped onions, garlic pods, parsley greens and salt with out adding water to a medium coarse consistency. Add maida, pepper powder, cardamom powder to it and mix well

Grind chickpeas with ingredients & other ingredients to mix later

3. Make round balls with the mix from step 3. Place a skillet with 1 cup cooking oil in it on low/medium flame. Once the oil is heated, drop the dough and fry till brown overall.

Falafel being fried

Falafel being fried till brown

4. Enjoy with any sauce of your choice. You can even crush it between bread/naan like Vada Paav. Yummmmmmm!!!